Denial and the Law
For those old enough to remember the 1960s, the denials of the oil companies these days have a certain ring. Back then smokers were dying and the tobacco companies lying. Then Bogie, Ty, Errol, Clark, and Coop. Finally, it was all too much. Hollywood was good at dying. But, the real thing? Reality hits. Big Tobacco was real good at lying and hiring Senators who wail about livelihoods, theirs and others, being dependent. It was the lying what did it, in the Senate. To some of the same who took the money. Took nigh on 30 years in total to stop after we all knew.
Big oil? Been 30 years and the jig is yet not up. Rigs would have been down but for the free marketing going on in the Senate. The good old boys sold us out again for a few shekels. Mostly the same people from the same states what did it. Not really them, of course; their reincarnates. You see, it’s in the blood. Still at creation and bloodlines. Not up to genetics yet.
Speaking of reincarnates, There is the House Freedom Caucus. Even the faces are the same. As before “The Lost Cause”, aka, the Civil War; my way or the highway. Halftime is over, they say. Eerie hearing some of the rhetoric coming from the very halls, the very same states; from the ghosts of the long gone past like Preston Brooks to Chip Roy. And still, another ignorant loud-mouth asshole. 160 years and not much has changed.
Governor Kay Ivey is the latter-day, smiling George Wallace. 60 years and not much has changed. Marinated? Pickled? How in the hell do they do it?
No doubt about it; none for years now. The cause is greenhouse gases from the burning of fossil fuels. Yet, as then, their paid liars in the Senate, in lockstep, deny it. As then, again the suits are beginning to be filed. Elderly Swiss women, kids in Montana, Puerto Rico; and states, and cities, filing suits. Oh my! They lied to us and knew it. That’s RICO! Please make it quick. From Plessy to Brown nigh on to 60 years; from WWI to Brown, 37. We haven’t much time. For sure, not 60, not even 30 years.
Not in the Roberts Court, you say? What the hell will be their excuse?
The economics of it are: They, Big Oil and Big Coal, want to be bought out. Their books say $ trillions in reserves. End the burning and they are worth $zero as in zilch. They know that eventually, as with segregation and tobacco, they will lose in court (this going backward is new for the Supreme Court, for the nation — can’t last). Running the numbers, the world should make them an offer they can’t refuse. The head of Chevron clears about $24 million/yr; BP’s CEO, more. Both made millions off inflation; taking it out of the working class’s pocket. Hold the CEOs responsible. It’s time to sue the piss out of them. Zero them out.
Yep. And hundreds of millions will die for their sins. Shame.
Ken:
Those refineries are going to need cleaning again to tighten up supply.
Well,
nothing has changed. we have the bad guys to blame it all on. and of course they are the same as the old bad guys. and there is nothing we can do about it. except call them names, of course.
it does remind me, though. of when liberal economics professors were decrying the cigarette tax because it was a “regressive” tax. you see, poor people paid a greater share of their income on cigarettes than rich people. [not only that, they smoked more “per capita.” and it was all because those mean people on madison avenue told them to smoke. talk about “argument from authority”…yes, “nine new york doctors say…”]
Someone should have punished those nine New York doctors if they really did say that; and they might have for the money.
Jack
the nine new york doctors was an advertisers way to get the mark to think “nine out of ten.” and yes, i am sure the nine doctors got paid to say that.
on the other hand i was indulging in a little joke about “economists say”…that the bosses share of the Social Security tax is “really” the employees money. the “economists” like to say that when they want the workers to think Social Security is a bad investment compared to the stock market.
on the other hand, they like to say Social Security is a “jobs killing tax” when they want the workers to think bosses can’t afford to pay them “their own money” so they won’t be able to find a job. it depends on the news of the day, you see.
but in private the bosses say “it’s all our money (social security tax, both employee and employer shares): our name is on the check.”
see..it’s all a matter of how you put things.
Of course, it isn’t their money; it’s their customers’ money. It’s also their employees’ money since they wouldn’t work for them without it.
Jackd
something like that. but to a member of the employer class every nickle that crosses the table, in either direction is “my money” if only he can figure a way to put his hand on top of it before the other guy.
“money” only exists when it is going from one hand to another.